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[Hecatonchires]

I know Toady has some long long term goals siding this and there is an old thread with some similar ideas in http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=001101  but I just had come up with this and thought it was so awesome I have to register and post.

Imagine dwarves could invent stuff, similar to artifact making, but much more rare. Like, you may get one or two inventions per an average fortress' lifetime, if you're lucky. Dwarf goes fey, claims an alchemists shop and makes black powder or claims mechanics and makes some new cadget. All new inventions will start leaving their mark on dwarves' everyday life and will sometimes unlock new workshops and items you can build. The inventions will spread once diplomats get to see them and you sell them to caravans. Other civs will also be able to do these advancements on their own.

Any dwarf could invent stuff, but dwarves with certain skills and professions  have a bigger chance of inventing something improving their own profession. Philosophers could have a slightly bigger chance making inventions overall, giving a possibility to a dwarven Leonardo da Vinci.

After a long time and some possible new fortresses, dwarves could invent science and you could start making libraries (at least after inventing press), maybe even universities, with dwarven scientists doing research. They could be a new form of nobles, requiring study rooms and demanding some weird materials and items. If you fail to meet their requirements, they wouldn't punish any dwarf, just go melancholy and maybe kill themselves. You could also order the scientists to study something specific, like agriculture, or metals, leading to some kind of tech tree, but that'll available then, not from the start.

Some bigger breakthroughs could be inventing medicine, leading to hospitals and quicker recovery from wounds, steam machines, leading to, say, steam- and dwarf-powered gigantic mechas fighting off a horde of goblins and a dragon, and guns, first big black-powder cannons, then flintlocks and the like, finally handguns and rifles. Flying machines, horseless carts. Electricity. You could even get to see a scientist demanding for a box and a cat.

The technological level between races would usually be about the same at first, but there could be some high-tech elves in some games, or goblins from space. Too much of a technological difference would usually make for an imbalanced game, and the superior races could wipe out others already in world generation.

All the advancements would come very slowly, it would not be possible to get it all in one fortress' lifetime, unless the fort is extremely long-lived. It would be much more interesting to go about as an adventurer between fortresses too, to see how the world is changing.

Sorry if this all seems like old and not worth discussing. Ignore this if you want.

[Silverionmox]

I think the concept of accumulating knowledge has serious balancing issues. Namely, it's a positive feedback loop: accumulating knowledge has the effect of improving your ability to accumulate knowledge, so in a universe that works like that there will be one group left standing, the rest subjugated unless severe negative feedback mechanisms are implemented.

Secondly, it would introduce - sooner or later - easy-to-use rifles, and mass production. That would be inappropriate for a game of adventurous courage and craftsdwarfship. Also, massive metropolises propped up by fertilizer aren't fun to play.. if that is your only option. And it will be the only option if there is the possibility of anyone inventing armored vehicles, and manning them with  the obsolete workers displaced by better technology.

[Inquisitor Saturn]

quote: a universe that works like that

OUR universe works like that.

[Lyrax]

How about this:

When you go to war with a civilization, some accumulated knowledge is traded.

It's a simple way to make sure nobody hogs it all, has definite ties to reality, and would be ridiculously simple to do.

[Kogan Loloklam]

quote:Originally posted by Inquisitor Saturn:
<STRONG>

OUR universe works like that.</STRONG>

Not quite. It can look that way, but we have a much more complex system then "Random Technology Driving forward the technological level"

Eventually, yes, technology levels get higher then they were, but they also go backwards, as seen in the fall of the Roman empire, or stagnate for a century or two, as seen in China.
The fact that those situations can happen shows that our universe doesn't, in fact, work like that. Development of technology is a very complex process, just as adaptation of technology and rejection of technology is. And they are all tied together with the power of the nations that they originate in. A third world's technological developments have always been laughed at, weather it was Visigoth developments of Venezuela developments. Unless the power provided allows them to change global status, in which case...

And shall we toss religion into the mix as well? The organization that kept alive most of western knowledge at the same time as they crushed the development of new knowledge?

What was lost when the first Library of Alexandria burned? The world may never know.

[Mikademus]

I'd rather not move the game closer to the real-time strategy template. Also, you might not realise this, but a tech tree, especially the dynamic one you seem to be suggesting is exceedingly complicated. Sid Meier tried in Alpha Centauri, and gave up.